Plastic Jellyfish
September 9th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
I’m in San Diego this week taking a mid-trip break, planning my workshops for next month and reviewing images from the first part of my Gulf Project on my studio computer. I have sooo many more images I want to make of the Gulf. My 2-month window for the trip is fast closing and I don’t feel even close to finished with what I hope to do.
This trip has been an eye-full. The contrast between the industrial and the tourism-based parts of the Gulf of Mexico has had a big impact on me. It’s not that I didn’t know the state of things on the planet or the Gulf before my trip – it’s what inspired the trip – but traveling the entire expanse of Gulf in the U.S. this summer has opened my eyes all the more.
The lives we currently live are fueled (fuel, food and products) at the expense of the well-being of the Gulf and it’s inhabitants human and otherwise. In the long run it’s at the expense of ourselves – even those of us who are trying to live more sustainable, gentle lives. No one, nothing on the planet is immune from over-consumption and unsustainable activities going on. The quality of life that any of us lead is a false one because it is eating away at and eroding the very foundation of life in the nurseries of our food chain. … and we know the Gulf of Mexico is not alone in this respect.
The plastic cup in the image below has a little oval bite out of it. Sea turtles eat jellyfish and when plastic is floating in the water it looks like a jellyfish to a sea turtle. Oval holes like this in plastic are the tell-tale sign that yet another turtle has yet another piece of plastic in it’s belly. This cup that makes our lives “cheaper” and “easier” is actually quite expensive both in where it comes from (fossil fuels and all they mean to our planet now) and in where it ends up – the food chain of the entire planet … not to mention they look like hell on the beach.
For more information about what I’m doing along the Gulf of Mexico and to learn how you can help support my work on this project so I can keep going please visit: http://memphisbarbree.com/Gulfproject_home.html
